There currently exist “pre-paid” telephone cards that allow a customer to purchase a desired amount of long-distance telephone time from a particular telephone service provider. These pre-paid telephone cards are often sold by dealers such as convenience stores or wireless phone stores. Pre-paid telephone cards are also often sold in airports. Vending machines for selling pre-paid telephone cards also have been developed. Each of these pre-paid telephone cards has a specific monetary denomination. For example, a customer could purchase a $10 card, a $20 card, or a $100 card. These pre-paid telephone cards are sold by particular telephone service providers such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc. A customer could, for example, buy a $20 MCI card, which would entitle him or her to $20 worth of long-distance calling service provided by MCI. These cards are referred to as “pre-paid” because the customer purchases the long-distance time before he or she actually places the call. This is in contrast to the more typical post-pay service that most telephone customers use with the telephone in their residence or office. With post-pay service, customers are sent a bill on a periodic basis. The customer pays for calls that have already been made, rather than calls that will be made in the future.
Frequently, the pre-paid telephone cards that are sold by dealers or vending machines are of the “scratch-off” type. After the customer purchases a card, he or she can scratch off a layer of material, which reveals a personal identification number (PIN). The layer of scratch-off material hides the PIN from customers browsing in the store who have not purchased the card. After a customer purchases a card and scratches off the layer of material, the customer can then use the card to place a long-distance call. When the customer wishes to place a long-distance call, he or she dials a special number provided by the telephone service provider. The customer then enters the PIN written on the card. The long distance provider automatically debits the charge of the call from an account associated with the PIN.
As an example, a customer could purchase a $10 MCI card. After the customer rubs off the layer of material, a PIN number 129384348764 is revealed. When the customer wishes to place a long-distance call, the customer dials an MCI access number. The customer then enters PIN 129384348764. The long-distance carrier, MCI, identifies the PIN and recognizes that there is $10 worth of credit in this account. If the customer places a call which lasts 5 minutes and costs $4, MCI will debit the account so that $6 remains. The next time the customer places a call using that PIN number, the system will find that $6 remains in the account associated with that PIN.
One problem with these pre-paid phone cards is that the cards are required to be carried as inventory by dealers. There is substantial work and expense associated with maintaining a filled inventory of cards. First, the dealer or vending machine operator has to predict which cards will be in demand and determine how many cards of each denomination to order for each of various providers. The dealer then has to pay for the desired inventory of cards up front, which requires a significant cash outlay. The dealer then has to keep track of how many cards are left in stock for each service provider and of each different monetary denomination, and determine when to order a new batch of cards. All of these costs associated with filled inventory can be time consuming and expensive for dealers.
Another problem is that these pre-paid telephone cards are especially vulnerable to theft, loss, and other inventory “shrinkage.” Because the cards are small, it is easy for a shoplifter to pocket a card unnoticed. Since these cards have a high value to them and are so easy to pocket, dealers, which sell these cards, are extremely vulnerable to inventory shrinkage.
Vending card machines have been proposed which store personal identification numbers (PINs) in a memory in the machine. A customer can then purchase a pre-paid telephone PIN by inserting cash into the machine. The machine can replenish its stock of PINs when the memory runs out of PINs or on a periodic basis by accessing a remote store of PINs via a modem.
One problem with these vending machines is that there are still significant costs associated with inventorying the PINs. The PINs are retained in a memory in the machine, which has a similar effect to storing cards. Once a PIN has been stored in the memory of a particular machine, that PIN becomes unavailable to be used by any other dealer, even if the PIN is never purchased. Additionally, if the machine was to break, or the memory was to be erased, there is a problem determining who is responsible for paying for the PINs that were contained in the memory. Additionally, decisions must still be made how many PINs to store in memory, what monetary denominations to store in memory, and for which providers to store PINs in memory. Therefore, there are still significant inventory costs associated with storing the PINs in the vending machine. Additionally, these proposed vending machines do not provide consumers the ability to obtain a PIN from the convenience of their homes or offices.
Another proposed system is based upon a web site accessed over the Internet. A customer can go to this web site and purchase pre-paid telephone service. A PIN is then e-mailed to the customer's e-mail address. One disadvantage of this service is that a customer must be able to access his or her e-mail account in order to obtain the PIN. Additionally, e-mail is often unsecure. If a computer hacker is “listening in” on an individual's email, then the hacker can steal the PIN and use it for his own purposes. Additionally, if a customer is purchasing a PIN in a convenience store or an airport, the customer will probably not have access to his or her e-mail account. The customer may have to wait to return to his or her home or office to access the PIN. Additionally, e-mail can sometimes be slow and it may take hours or days to retrieve the message from the customers Internet Service Provider (ISP).
A system which overcomes the primary disadvantages of the systems referenced above is described in the above-referenced co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/316,603, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. This co-pending application describes a system and method for providing a personal identification number (PIN) to a client terminal over a computer network. The described system and method eliminates all costs associated with filled inventory for dealers selling PINs. For example, a server receives a request for a PIN over a network, the request originating from a user at a client terminal. The request is associated with a requested monetary unit and a requested provider. The server retrieves from a database a PIN associated with the requested monetary unit and requested provider. The server transmits the retrieved PIN to the client terminal over the network, wherein the PIN is transmitted to the client terminal on-demand in response to the customer's request. No inventory of PINs is stored at the client terminal. All transmissions between the client terminal and the server are by secure transmission to prevent an eavesdropper from stealing the PIN(s).
Upon or prior to receipt of the PIN at the client terminal, the user is prompted to enter payment at the terminal for the requested PIN. After the user pays for one or more PINs, the client terminal prints a receipt for the customer, the receipt including the requested PIN number and instructions for using the PIN. The PIN can be used for accessing pre-paid telephone service. Alternatively, the PIN can be used for accessing other pre-paid goods and services such as gasoline, magazines, subway service, etc.
Although the system described in the above co-pending application provides numerous advantages, in many implementations a telephone call is required to be placed from the client terminal to the server in connection with the purchase and dispensing of each PIN. Unfortunately, the telecommunications charges resulting from such calls tend to increase the cost of operating the system.